373. While the four sub-physical bodies come into being directly at the command of a thought or wish, the two physical ones are of a nature too difficult and unmanageable for thought-control. Therefore the creation of such bodies can only be promoted with the aid of other physical bodies already in existence, that is to say by means of the "parent principle". It is precisely on this account that a terrestrial person, for instance, cannot be born or enter the world – that is, cannot create a physical body for himself – without the help of two already existing bodies belonging to two other beings. The sources of these two bodies thus become that individual's "father" and "mother".
      Here in the "divine world", however, the "parent principle" is latent. Matter obeys the individual's "fate-element" in a direct way. It is with the help of the "parent principle" that a being's actual physical body can be created. And with this body the individual is able to manage heavy physical matter, partly with the physical body itself and partly by means of implements and machines, which he can create and construct with the aid of his physical body. But this physical body and these physical constructions can only be directed and controlled with the help of the spiritual bodies. These spiritual bodies, together with every other manifestation made from the same materials or substances, come into being directly and solely through the "fate-element" and the "talent-kernels". The individual's manifestation is thus shown to be both a direct and an indirect manifestation or visible rendering. The living being's experiences or sensory impressions must, therefore, also be both direct and indirect.
      So in ordinary physical existence where the individual being can only appear in the form of a mineral, a plant or an animal, we are seeing only the indirect expression of its creative power or release of will. But underlying physical existence there is also a more direct existence based solely on the direct expression of a living being's thought or will, in other words, its desire for manifestation and for life itself. In this way the spiral is clearly revealed as having two parts, namely, one for direct and the other for indirect creation and experience. Of these two parts terrestrial man is acquainted only with the one in which indirect experience and creation can come about, and this part is the same as what we would call "the physical world". This world, then, is based to a very high degree on "gravity" and "feeling" (heat and cold) which again forms the basis for all concentrated and all dissolved physical matter.
      On account of its condensed or heavy nature, this matter forms a basis for the development of an individual's faculty of "thinking". In this kind of matter the results of mental "mistakes" or imperfections of consciousness are not nearly so drastic or disastrous as they would be if occurring in the spiral zone where matter is light. It is only when an individual can manage "heavy" material to perfection that his manifestations will be able to appear always sparkling and shining with harmony and beauty in that part of the spiral where thought manifests itself directly.